Photograph of Johnny MacKay of Balephuil transporting tangles with a donkey and cart in 1957.
Courtesy of Mr Alan Boyd
Morton Boyd photographed Johnny MacKay of Am Bail’ Ur in Balephuil in 1957 transporting dried kelp, known as tangles, with a donkey and cart. The tangles would be sent each year to the mainland for processing into alginates which are widely used to thicken food and size cloth.
Seaweed has also been used from the earliest times as animal fodder, for medicinal use, for human consumption – a milk pudding made from carrageen is still widely eaten on Tiree – and as a fertiliser for hay meadows and particularly for potatoes.
Crofters collecting seaweed divided the shoreline between them but occasionally disputes arose. As late as 1914 the Land Court had to adjudicate between crofters in Caoles, one of whom was ‘only allowed to take seaweed from the boundary of Ruaig to Ardeas until Old St. Patrick’s Day’ while his neighbour had free access to the beaches.
Black and white photograph of Johnny MacKay in 1957.
Johnny MacKay of Bail` Ur, Balephuill, collecting dry tangles in 1957.
Newspaper cutting about Martyn Kennedy, grandson of John MacPhail, Baelphuil.
Martyn Kennedy, son of Iain and Irene Kennedy, grandson of John MacPhail, Ardmay, Balephuil, has won the first Oatbridge Agricultural College travel award to study beef production in Canada.
Photocopied letter from the factor Hugh MacDiarmid dated 20/3/1893.
Letter from the factor Hugh MacDiarmid dated 20/3/1893 to the Duke`s chamberlain about assistance to roof Archibald MacLean`s house in Cornaigbeg, the selling of a cottar`s house in Balephuil to pay for funeral expenses and another cottar family setting up residence in a byre in Balevullin.
Photocopied letter from Edinburgh solicitors Lindsay Howe & Co dated 20/3/1893 to the Duke of Argyll`s chamberlain.
Advice about the selling of a cottar`s house in Balephuil by relatives of the deceased and a family of cottars setting up residence in a byre in Balevullin.
Audio cassette of a BBC Radio programme with Dr John MacInness talking to Hugh MacLean and Donald Archie Kennedy about Donald Sinclair of Balephuil recorded in 1995.
BBC Radio programme broadcast in 1995 with Dr John MacInnes of the Scottish School of Studies talking to Hugh MacLean and Donald Archie Kennedy about the life and songs of Donald Sinclair (Dhòmhnall Chaluim Bhain) of Balephuil, with extracts of previous recordings of Domhnall Chaluim Bhain singing his own songs and talking about Captain Donald MacKinnon and the Great China Tea Race, second sight, curses and healing powers. BBC program Rèidio air a chur a mach ann an 1995 le Dotair Iain Mac Aonghais a Sgoil Eòlais na h-Alba a bruidhinn ri Eòghann Mac ’illeathainn agus Dòmhnall Èairdsidh Mac Ualraig mu beatha agus òrain Dhòmhnaill Chaluim Bhàin a Baile Phuill, le giorradan seann clàran de Dòmhnall Chaluim Bhàin a’ seinn òrain, a’ bruidhinn mu ’n Sgiobair Dòmhnall Mac Fhionghainn agus an Reis Mhòr an Ti Shina, an dath shealladh, guidheachan agus comas leigheis.
Audio cassette recording of Seumas na Croige with Alan Boyd.
Alan Boyd talks to James MacDonald (Seumas na Croige) of West Hynish about his sea-faring days and being shipwrecked in World War I, his schooldays at Balemartine School, the people of West Hynish and Bail’ Ur, their nicknames and genealogy, fishing and different types of seaweed, thatched houses, healing powers, Captain Donald MacKinnon of the Great China Tea Race, and place-names in Balephuil and West Hynish. Gàidhlig neo-mhodail: Tha Ailean Bòid a’ bruidhinn ri Seumas Mac Dhòmhnaill (Seumas na Croige) as na Cùiltean mu na làithean aige aig fairge agus mar a chaidh am bàta air an robh e air na sgeirean ’sa Cheud Chogadh, làithean sgoile ann am Baile Mhàrtainn, muinntir nan Cùiltean agus am Bail’ Ùr, a far-ainm agus an sloinneadh aca, iasgach, deifir sheòrsa feamainn, taighean tugha, comasan leigheis, an sgiobair Dòmhnall Mac Fhionghainn, fear Reis Mhòr an Ti Shina agus ainmean-aite ann am Baile Phuill agus na Cùiltean
